Writing a spell in a spellbook

[Shard O'Glase]

Well, I think the cost is fairly prohibitive. There are ways around it like blessed books etc., which makes you think why they put the cost in there in the 1st place? If it is supposed to be an actual balancing factor for mages, why make a easy method to avoid the cost and the balancing factor.

There are a ton of ways around it especially for PCs, so I don't think it is that big of a deal. But if you don't use the ways around it a wizards spellbook wont be that much bigger than a sorcerers known spells unless the wizard decided he doesn't need magic items. So all the wizard is gaining over the sorcerer is bonus feats, and a couple extra known spells woo-hoo. But if you actually use the ways around the costs then the wizard has there versatility that theyare supposed to have, so it works out.

 

[Christian]

There are within the rules (depending on which rules) means to offset some of the cost (BBB if you can find a tenday free to make it or mastering a spellbook from MoF if you can find tenday plus level to try it and make a difficult spellcraft check ...

Hey, that sounds like a pretty good rule ... I don't have MoF, could you share some details?

 

[Marshall]

Well, I think the cost is fairly prohibitive. There are ways around it like blessed books etc., which makes you think why they put the cost in there in the 1st place? If it is supposed to be an actual balancing factor for mages, why make a easy method to avoid the cost and the balancing factor.

There are a ton of ways around it especially for PCs, so I don't think it is that big of a deal. But if you don't use the ways around it a wizards spellbook wont be that much bigger than a sorcerers known spells unless the wizard decided he doesn't need magic items. So all the wizard is gaining over the sorcerer is bonus feats, and a couple extra known spells woo-hoo. But if you actually use the ways around the costs then the wizard has there versatility that theyare supposed to have, so it works out.

Shards got it right here. If you go with those exorbitant scribing costs you end up with a weak and highly restricted sorceror. The number of spells a wiz has in his book is insignificant to game balance since he is still restricted to 5 different spells per day that have to be prepared ahead of time.

 

[Ravellion]

The wizard in the campaign I Dm gladly pays through the nose for his spells... he then scribes scrolls and carries a few of the less used spells around as well.

Rav

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I would gadly pay the costs as well as a wizard, since having a good assortment of spells is the entire strength of the wizard over the sorcerer. But without the various ways around the costs,(including making items for the party and charging them more than cost) I'd probably wish I was playing a sorcerer.

 

[Chacal]

Since I'm DMing a low-money campaign,
I had to lower the scribing cost. But I guess It would be ok with standard money.

As a rule of thumb, I try to let the wizards PCs have access to at least a little more than twice the number of spells that a sorcerer one level higher would know.


Chacal

 

[Rel]

There was an extremely long running thread about this topic on the old boards. I have no interest in restarting the lengthy (but civil) debate that resulted. Suffice it to say that I had a great many problems with the inconsistent and arbitrary manner in which the "Wizard Tax" was applied in the core rules.

Therefore, I created house rules for my campaign. They may not work out for all campaigns but they seem to work for me. They are fairly simple:

1) Wizards get no "free" spells simply for going up levels. All spells they wish to add to their spellbooks must be found on scrolls or in other spellbooks.

2) The cost to scribe spells into a spellbook is for the high quality ink that must be used. It costs 10gp per page (10% of the price listed in the core rules).

3) Spells need not be copied from a "found" spellbook in order to be cast from it. They must however, spend an amount of time equal to the normal time required to scribe the spell studying it. After that, they must make a Spellcraft check (DC 20+spell level). If they succeed, they may prepare that spell from the found book. If they fail, they may try again after their Spellcraft has gone up.

These simple rules fixed what was wrong to me about arcane spell preperation. I can summarize what I felt was wrong in a very short anecdote:

There were once two wizards, an elf and a human. The elf was locked in the greatest magical library in the world with a quill and a regular pot of ink for a hundred years. At the end of a hundred years he could cast no more spells than he could when he was locked inside. The human went into a dungeon with some friends and killed orcs for a week. At the end of a week he could cast two more spells than he could when he went inside, even though he didn't find a single scroll. And the human lived happily ever after.

No thanks.

Rule 0.